First-Quarter Sales Declined

At HBG First-quarter sales at Hachette Book Group USA fell 12.3% compared to the first period of 2014. E-books sales fell in the quarter, and their share of HBG sales was 28%, down from 34% in the same period last year.

Time Inc. Shrinks Books Division

Women’s Wear Daily reported that Time Inc. has cut 15 employees from its book division, mainly from the editorial department. The layoffs were spread across the company’s New York and Birmingham, Ala., offices. Managing editor Matt DeMazza was among one of the high-ranking employees let go.

S&S Testing Geo-Targeting

Simon & Schuster is partnering with mobile-content delivery service Foli to offer customers complimentary access to a selection of full-text e-books in airports, museums, and hotels around the country. Beginning May 15, 19 titles will be available though a select group of hotels and airport lounges.

March Bookstore Sales Rose 5.1%

Bookstores made $686 million in sales in March, up from $653 million a year ago, which marks a 5.1% increase, according to preliminary estimates released on May 13 by the U.S. Census Bureau. With the increase, bookstore sales in the first quarter of 2015 were up 0.1%, compared to the first quarter of 2014, hitting just shy of $2.8 billion.

Ruppel Named Phaidon COO

Philip Ruppel, formerly president of McGraw-Hill Education’s professional division, has joined Phaidon as chief operating officer. The appointment reunites Ruppel with Keith Fox, who was named Phaidon’s CEO in 2014.

Avon Impulse Trumpets Sales Milestone

Avon Impulse, HarperCollins’s digital-first romance fiction imprint created in 2011, announced that in the four years since its launch, it has sold more than three million e-books.

ABDO Launches YA Fiction List

The debut list of EPIC Press, a new Minneapolis-based YA house, will include 48 titles: eight series, each containing six related novels, will be released simultaneously in both hardcover and in digital formats.